Too Upset to Create

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Earnest creation requires some sort of passion for what is being made, whether it's a child drawing something for the fridge, a professional journalist working on the big scoop, or a scientist Creating Life, and everything in between. When that passion is gone, so is the will to create.

So, when these creative types become emotionally wrecked, their passion tends to leave them. They don't want to work on their new novel or finish up that painting they've been obsessing over. They just want to do nothing— or worse, they want to destroy their creations. Their ability to create leaves them entirely, and even if they make an effort, they will find they just can't do it. Not in the way they could before, at the very least. This is especially likely if their breakdown was caused by something related to their creation.

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Undoubtedly, this shift will worry those around them, who are used to this character being interested in their craft. They may try and help the character regain their creative spark, but it's not always possible.

This is Truth in Television. Depression can make people lose interest in things they once enjoyed, and this includes creative endeavors. That said, not every example of this trope is going through an actual depression; they may just be going through a rough patch.

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Examples:

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Films — Animation

In Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Flint Lockwood feels bad about all of his inventions backfiring and potentially putting everyone in danger by accidentally making it rain Giant Food. He wants to quit being an inventor and calls all his inventions, and himself, "junk".

Degrassi: When Maya's already-fragile mental state falls apart after the bus crash, she's rendered unable to write anything at all for the school musical. Her friends end up replacing her.

iCarly: In "iHeart Art", Spencer becomes crushed after his art gets criticized harshly by his artistic idol. He gives up on art altogether and becomes a dental assistant, refusing to do art until the kids convince him that his art is good.

Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide: In "Guide To Boys", Ned is left depressed after Suzy left the school, despite it only being temporary. His emotional state is so bad that he's unable to work on the Guide, falling into a deep state of writer's block, until his friends snap him out of it.

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Video Games

Cataclysm has a morale meter that is affected by things like the food your character eats or the weather. If morale gets too far in the negatives, you are locked out of crafting or repairing items until you get it back up.

Layers of Fear is centered on a Mad Artist who is struggling to paint his magnum opus, but has to search his house for items to do so. It's implied later on that his lack of will to paint stemmed from his wife's injury in a fire, and eventual death, and all the artist has left is trying to recreate her portrait. His skill returns little by little as the painting takes form, but 3 different endings vary on what the final result becomes.

The Cry of Mann: Jack starts off as a completely obsessive artist, and though he was only painting one thing, his family still had respect for his talent and passion. That is, until his art show, where his chosen subject matter of orange phones sent everyone into a mass, unprovoked, fit of rage. After that, Jack became so angry at everything in his life that he destroyed his paintings, and lashed out at his family members and his callers. By the time he became "Jack Prime", his anger had consumed him, and his interest in art was gone.

Shown in a Yet Another Christmas Carol plot in "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils" when Luna shows Sweetie Belle what the consequences of her actions in sabotaging Rarity's headpiece for Sapphire Shores will be if she doesn't fix things. Namely the headpiece falls apart when Sapphire tries it on during a dress rehearsal, Rarity loses her credibility due it, obsesses over the mistake to the point she won't even speak to her friends anymore and ultimately stuck in a fetal position while her dress shop falls into ruin.

Happens again in "Inspiration Manifestation", though this time due to Rarity not designing a cart for a puppeteer properly and getting chastised for it. Spike finds her in the dress shop suffering Heartbreak and Ice Cream, which prompts him to help her gain her spark back via a ominous-looking book he finds in the Castle of the Two Sisters.

In "Phineas And Ferb Get Busted", the boys are sent to a reformatory school after their mother catches their latest project. The program was designed specifically to stomp out creative, individualistic spirit in kids, led by a cruel Drill Sergeant Nasty. By the end of it, Phineas and Ferb are shells of their former selves, and can't create anything. Luckily, it was All Just a Dream.

In the "Summer Belongs To You" special, in which Phineas and Ferb travel around the entire world to have the longest possible day of summer, they end up stranded on an island. Phineas is so upset that he might fail that he starts snapping at everyone around him and his usual ability to think up insane solutions on the fly won't work. Isabella has to snap him out of it as he gets more and more desperate.

In "Pickles", SpongeBob gets so upset about forgetting to put pickles on a Krabby Patty that he is unable to remember how to prepare one. It gets so bad he can't do anything at all, even talk with proper syntax. Once he is able to relearn how to make a Krabby Patty, he returns back to normal.

In "Artist Unknown", SpongeBob attends Squidward's art class, annoying his teacher with his unusual creative process. Squidward scolds him for doing art "wrong", and he gets so upset he quits the class and goes to live in the dump. When an art collector comes in and declares one of SpongeBob's artworks a masterpiece, Squidward tries to get SpongeBob to make some more. Unfortunately, SpongeBob has taken Squidward's criticisms to heart, and is unable to recreate his previous work.

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